Fatal Heart Attack Leads to Life-Saving Gift

Maury County Public Defender Claudia Jack says she felt helpless as she watched a deputy’s frantic efforts to revive a man who had collapsed inside the county courthouse. And she was shocked to learn that the county does not own any automated external defibrillators (AED) used to restart the heart. With the memory of her own father’s tragic death, Jack decided to take action. A few days later she walked into Maury County Mayor Jim Bailey’s office and handed him a signed, blank check. A new AED station is now mounted on the first floor of the courthouse. “We’ll never know if an AED would have saved that man’s life or not,” Jack said. “But if an AED had been available we certainly would have been satisfied knowing we did everything we could do.” Read more in the Columbia Daily Herald.